Okami

Written by Tom Clare in PS2 Game Reviews, Saturday 23 August, 2008

Released: 2006
Developer: Clover Studios
Publisher: Capcom
Genre: RPG, 3D Platformer
Platform: PS2

Clover Studio's first cel-shaded adventure Viewtiful Joe garnered much critical acclaim for its fresh spin on the ageing 2D platform genre, but impressive though it was, few could have foreseen that it would be just a warm up for what the developers were really capable of. Their final game would fittingly prove to be their magnum-opus, whereby all the possibilities fleetingly glimpsed in VJ would be realised in Okami. For just a fleeting moment in 2007, the next-generation formats were forgotten as the PlayStation2 played centre-stage to an adventure unlike any other.

Without having played (or even seen) Okami, it's quite difficult to convey how deep its creative streak runs; a sense of the abstract is evident in almost every facet of its make-up. In equal parts a 3D platformer and an RPG, the game sees you controlling a God reborn as a white wolf, known as Amaterasu (or 'Ammy', to her sprite companion Issun). She is given the unenviable task of defeating the serpent demon Orochi whilst in the process reviving a land ravaged by darkness and acquiring 13 celestial brush strokes that gift her powers befitting a God.

At any time, the player can freeze the gameplay, bringing down a grey-scale canvas over the surroundings, and with the celestial brush you can draw shapes, affecting the world around you. Painting a circle in the sky for instance will make the sun appear, whilst a circle on water will create a lily pad for Ammy to walk across. The brush can be used for more aggressive pursuits - a strait line will chop down an enemy in battle or a tree, or it can be used to heal the landscape by returning leaves to the trees.

Bit by bit, Amaterasu can acquire 'God Points' by helping villagers in their tasks, healing the evil-tarnished landscape and even feeding the animals who populate it. Even these smallest of tasks are a real pleasure to perform, simply because the game world feels so perfect, and it's wonderful so see each utopia restored to its full radiance. There's a real organic beauty to the cel-shaded visuals, with an artistic, almost ethereal quality to them that is able to convey contrasting moods with equal levels of success. The more idyllic areas are impossibly vibrant; saturated in an amazing array of colours, whilst the lands still tainted by evil are conversely dominated by a heavy, suffocating atmosphere due to the manner in which the darkness swirls and seeps around you and the shadows consist only of pure blackness. At times, it's like being part of a living watercolour painting.

It's undoubtedly the most distinctive looking game for the PlayStation2, and all the more amazing given how technically at home it seems in its own skin. It features a camera that's about as good as you'll find in any third-person adventure whilst the fluidity and grace is remarkable, impressing even down to the minor details - such as flowers sprouting from the ground where Amaterasu has been travelling. Okami's presentation in general is outstanding, its animation constantly amusing and inventive, whilst its routinely huge landscapes border on the epic. Far from petering out, Okami's artistic finesse ramps up to even greater heights as you play towards its conclusion; the giant, lush fields and rivers you encounter near the beginning are soon surpassed by a jaw-dropping, dreamy underwater Kingdom and then an ice village in the midst of a snow-storm.

The unique visual style is matched by some first-rate (and equally original) music; the beautiful, tranquil melodies can shift towards a state of ominous brooding in quick time, and these disarming songs make for an ideal compliment to a troubled paradise such as that which you are travelling through. Speech is replaced by mumblings that inevitably starts to annoy after a time, though in the after event, you are left feeling that ?kami would in some way have been diminished by voice-acting - it would have made for a jarring reality check that would not have fit well with the rest of the game. So, in short - a necessary evil.

The story unfolds in such a way as to make you feel like you are taking part in an age-old legend, rather fittingly told in grandiose fashion, and even if it does feel a touch long-winded at times, the characters themselves are quirky enough and entertaining enough to keep things interesting. Despite recurrent themes of demons and darkness, it's quite a serene gaming experience as the difficulty and pace of things are quite gentle. The fact that Issun talks you through each new brush procedure means a lot of sections may come across as glorified training sessions, yet so keen is the game to offer up innovative uses for them that this never really becomes an issue. Challenges relating to Amaterasu's unique abilities and skilfully interwoven into the fabric of the adventure, meaning that though there are few parts of the game that will stump seasoned gamers, they remain compelling as no. Even the sub-games are great, the pick of the bunch being a fishing game where you can catch a variety of fish and then sell them to merchants; you'll get a good couple of hours fun just out of this.

Okami uses a battle-system more traditionally associated with RPG's - fights begin when you come into contact with an enemy in the field of play, erecting a circular barrier in which you must then battle in real-time. This is one area of the game that could very easily have gone wrong, but thankfully it avoids any potential pitfall thanks to a well-judged mix of simplicity and depth; battles don't take too long to finish and most enemies can be polished off with a bit of button-bashing, but there is the occasional foe that requires some cute brushwork to defeat, keeping things interesting. Whilst the normal enemies are great, the highlights battle-wise are undoubtedly the bosses. A giant spider-plant gets things rolling early on; as it is only vulnerable from the inside, you are tasked with the challenge of attaching vines to it from several angles in order to open it up and expose its weakness. Elsewhere, defeating Orochi requires that you get each of the serpents heads drunk by feeding them sake, and then attack when they are disorientated. It's refreshing to see a platform-orientated game maintain the use of older abilities not just in the course of the adventure but also for key fights.

There is the odd tiny blemish on this otherwise superb title; firstly, it is very cut-scene heavy and some are a shade on the lengthy side - the introduction (which cannot be skipped) lasts for near-on half an hour! And if I'm being really picky, battles and bosses lack sufficient challenge due in part to the generous supply of health replenishment items you are permitted to carry.

They say you can never have enough of a good thing, but whilst it's an absolutely vast game, it does reach a point where it feels like Okami has prolonged its encore a little too long. I finished it after a whopping 41 hours, though for the final ten you get a nagging feeling that its conclusion is being drawn out. Not that the final few hours are any less inventive or enjoyable to play through, it's just that it feels like the story is nearing its conclusion faster than the action itself. Still, it's truly remarkable the amount of effort Clover have invested in make a game such as this so huge.

Few games so successfully manage to marry style and substance to such immense levels as ?kami. It has more inventive touches in ten minutes play than most platformers manage in their entirety and its unusual, fantastically executed graphical style is built upon a really high-class game engine. It's unconventional and that in itself will put off many gamers, but give it a chance and the rewards are great.

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